Strange guest
by FasterGhost
Summary: The most unexpected guest shows up on the threshold of Shepard-T'Soni household and Liara learns that not all is as she thought it was. Some of the darkest secrets of the asari species will be unraveled as a result.
1. Chapter 1

**Nearly a year after the reaper war, Shepard and Liara are getting used to their lives on Thessia in Liara's ancestral home... Until the most unexpected guest shows up on their threshold and Liara learns that not all is as she thought it was...**

* * *

It was nearly nine months since Commander Jane Shepard activated the Crucible and the reaper war finally ended, the ancient killing machines that plagued the galaxy for untold eons finally destroyed.

War was long and terrible and almost every inhabited planet in the galaxy was affected. Thessia, the asari homeworld, was no exception.

It was this planet where Commander Shepard moved after the great war, together with her bondmate – Dr. Liara T'Soni, the famous archaeologist, information broker and current head of the famous T'Soni family.

They moved to T'Soni family mansion which was located several kilometers out of main Armali city. Rumor said that T'Sonis resided in this area ever since asari first learned to use agriculture, over 40 000 years ago. Liara's family was also instrumental in founding the Armali city and one of her ancestors was its very first overseers (equivalent to a Mayor in human terms).

It was all the more surprising that the reaper invasion and the resulting chaos practically did not touch the T'Soni's ancestral household at all.

After Benezia's death, only a handful of asari tenders were left on the grounds, and when Reapers invaded, they left as well, leaving the household empty. Perhaps it was for this reason that the reapers ignored it, focusing on the asari population and not paying any attention to old, empty buildings.

When Shepard and Liara came there with their entourage, the house was completely livable after only a day worth of work and so they immediately settled into their new life.

It would have been a life of decadent luxury if not for the war devastation apparent all around them.

* * *

Shepard woke up to an empty bed. She did not panic when she failed to find her bondmate next to her. Instead, she just sighed and put on her clothes.

She stepped out of the bedroom and walked through seemingly empty halls of the T'Soni family mansion... it was an illusion of course. To her initial annoyance, Shepard found out that life in Liara's ancestral house meant that various servants and guards were watching her every step... One to fulfill her wishes and the others ready to lay down their own lives to protect the family members.

Shepard knew that at the beginning, Liara too was quite reluctant at what she once disdainfully called "living the life of her mother". Nevertheless, after few days, the young asari fully embraced her role, completely living up to her family name with grace and dignity.

Eventually, Shepard reached a room where she knew she would find her bondmate. Stepping inside, she was assaulted by quiet humming of computers. This was one room which was off-limits to the household servants... This was Liara's secret Shadow Broker room.

_The Shadow Broker_ herself was currently slumped over her desk, her head lying on it as she slept.

Shepard smiled, taking in the image before she quietly reached her bondmate and pressed a kiss onto her crest.

"Wake up, love," she whispered.

"W-What?" Liara grumbled as she was aroused from her sleep. "Oh no, not again..." Liara complained as she came to and saw where she was. She lay her head against the chair's headrest

"I know," Shepard said and massaged the asari's stiff neck. "You need to take better care of yourself now, Liara," she lightly chastised her as she kneaded the blue flesh.

"No burning of the midnight oil, anymore..."

"It's not like that, Jane," Liara assured her as she stood up and stretched herself. She glanced at the clock. "I actually woke up only an hour ago..." she defended herself.

"I could not sleep anymore, so I came here to maybe get some work done" she said. "I guess the sleep came over me again"

Shepard smiled. Ever since the war ended, Liara has been pushing herself hard in her role as the Shadow Broker to increase the rebuilding efforts throughout the galaxy.

And when it came to Thessia, Liara was using the full impact of her family's name to spearhead the reconstruction of Armali.

And Shepard had to admit that she was doing an amazing job on both levels. She just wished that it did not tire her bondmate out this much. This was not the first time when she found Liara sleeping at her workstation.

Together, they seriously considered dismantling the Shadow Broker network after the war. However, they eventually concluded that at the moment, it was still too much valuable to loose - not only to speed up the recovery, but also to keep an eye on various factions that might take an advantage of the galaxy's vulnerable state – Liara's secret influence was actually maintaining the peace.

"Ok then" she said and gave Liara a quick peck. "Did you eat yet? Will you have breakfast with me?" she asked, focusing on the positives.

"No, I didn't... and Yes, I'd love that" she smiled as she laid her head on Shepard's shoulder for a moment in a quick hug.

Joining their hands, they went in the direction of the dining room where their breakfast would be set up.

When they came into the room, there were two asari servants preparing their seats and meals.

"Good morning, mistress T'Soni, mistress Shepard," they said in unison followed by carefully practiced curtsy.

Shepard and Liara greeted them back and took their seats at the table, thanking them as they sat.

Ordinarily, even the breakfast was more like a luxurious banquet in the households of noble Thessian families...

But Shepard and Liara were both very pragmatic people and so they insisted that their everyday breakfast be modest and simple. Liara was having what Shepard knew was a common morning meal for asari – baked rolls filled with sea algae that grew in great quantities in coastal areas of Thessia. Additionally, they were topped with a sweet liquid similar in taste and origin to human maple syrup.

Never coming to like asari dishes (something that Liara constantly teased her about), Shepard was having purely human breakfast consisting of scrambled hen eggs, bacon and mushrooms along with wholemeal bread.

She was drinking coffee while Liara had an asari tea.

One of the things Shepard had to overcome when she came to live on Thessia was the food.

While, she whole heartily agreed with the galactic codex that described the asari homeworld as the "crown jewel of the galaxy" and "beating heart of galactic love", it was still a very foreign place to her human organism and she faced the same issues as every other alien bondmate that followed the asari all the way to their ancient home.

The problem was the ever present eezo in the planet's biosphere. On Thessia, the element zero was in the food, water, even the ground and the air.

The native live learned to live with it during the evolution. Either by developing biotic powers (like the sentient asari) or in the completely opposite way, by becoming highly-resistant to its effects. This was not true of the aliens as none of the other homeworlds in the Citadel space possessed any significant element zero deposits.

Since Shepard wasn't a biotic, her body could not handle the element in a safe way. The same went for all non-biotic aliens living on Thessia.

A water could be easily filtered and was never an issue. But in the past millenniums, the food for the alien bondmates had to be imported, which could be quite expensive for the family. Culturally, an asari living with an alien bondmate on Thessia was therefore seen as a sign of wealth among the asari.

Nowadays, the aliens could eat even local food after it was treated with a special device similar to a microwave oven that would extract the eezo from it.

The eezo food extractor was available in almost every restaurant on the planet and in every household that had alien family members or visiting alien friends.

Shepard and Liara slowly ate their breakfast, occasionally exchanging glances, smiles and small talk about their plans for the day.

When they were finished, Liara nodded to Shepard's left where there was a white pill placed on small plate and a glass of water.

Shepard rolled her eyes slightly before she took the pill and gulped it down along with some water – another thing she had to do while living on Thessia.

While the asari and humans were more biochemically compatible than anyone, there were still differences that required specific dietary treatments. Specifically, the life on Thessia did not use two of the human standard amino acids – tryptophan and proline. It also lacked vitamin C and several other minor substances that had to be supplied artificially – hence the pill.

Colloquially termed "human pill" it was created to incorporate all compounds necessary for the human body that it could not otherwise obtain from Thessian food. It also contained peptide designed to encapsulate trace amounts of element zero breathed in by the human and allow their body to expel them safely.

Similarly, there was also salarian pill, krogan pill, volus pill and batarian pill (the dextro-based turians and quarians having to import all their native food anyway).

Fortunately for the aliens, the environment on Thessia was biochemically much more forgiving than on other homeworlds or colonies and the asari did maximum to ensure comfort of their bondmates.

An asari living on Earth or Sur'Kesh faced more serious limitations and imported food was usually the only solution. This was also the reason why the colonies were often settled based on whether the settling species could grow the plants native to their homeworld there.

It is necessary to say that Shepard did not mind those things at all and after few months did not even think about them. To her, these limitations were a very small price to pay for the opportunity to share her days with the love of her life, on the most beautiful planet in the galaxy.

They were finishing their coffee and tea respectively, when Liara's omni-tool rang.

The asari accepted the call and the face of the T'Soni's household guard commander appeared in the holographic projection.

"What is it, Shiala?" Liara asked, seeing the uneasy expression of the huntress and her childhood mentor.

"Liara, we may have a security issue here" she quickly said and glanced to her right.

"There is an asari at the main gate asking to speak with you," Shiala said and Liara resisted the urge to ask questions, knowing that Shiala would not bother her unless she deemed it important enough for her to know.

"She did not give us her name..." Shiala continued.

"She only said that she knew your mother"

Liara considered the situation for a moment. Many people knew her mother and she had no wish to meet with half of them.

"Tell her that unless she cares to be more specific, she can wait and arrange a scheduled appointment like everyone else" Liara eventually said.

Shiala shrugged. "I think that maybe you should speak with her now... she _knows_ things."

"What kind of things?" Liara asked, her curiosity of an information broker peaked.

"Things that I am certain that your mother never told anyone" Shiala said.

"She's also... I really think that you should speak with her now" Shiala said with confidence. "We scanned her for weapons and explosives and she is clear" she assured her.

"Alright," Liara eventually consented, trusting Shiala's instincts on this.

"Bring her to the entry hall. I will meet her there" Liara instructed and Shiala nodded before disconnecting.

Shepard was watching the exchange with growing curiosity and when Liara asked her to come with her, she immediately did.

They arrived at the hall and in few seconds, Shiala came in together with a single asari wearing a traditional robe.

Shepard's eyes fell on the asari and she had a strong feeling that she has seen her somewhere already.

The asari had a commanding presence around her. Shepard figured that she must be old, perhaps even a matriarch.

She was also very beautiful and Shepard found herself unable to break an eye contact as it was made and the asari stared intently at her. There was something overwhelmingly powerful about her that made Shepard feel scared and completely captivated at the same time.

It was still nothing compared to Liara's reaction. Shepard's thoughts were broken when she felt a trembling hand of her bondmate grabbing her wrist.

"Mother..." Liara whispered in weak voice.

At that moment, Shepard knew where she saw that asari... she was a spitting image of Liara's mother – Benezia T'Soni... But she knew that that was impossible... was it?

The asari broke eye contact with Shepard and looked at Liara with a sad look.

"No. I am sorry, Liara," she said sympathetically, apparently having heard Liara's weak outburst.

"My name is Syrila..." she said and took a deep breath. "Syrila _**T'Soni**_."

"Benezia was my sister."


	2. Chapter 2

After the initial shock wore off, Liara called the house medic and had her run a DNA test on both herself and the supposed _Syrila T'Soni_.

The results were very conclusive. Syrila's genes were showing much similarity to Liara's and even more to Benezia's. There were also large genetic similarities to Liara's grandmother, essentially confirming Syrila's story.

Nevertheless, Liara was not completely convinced.

She had Syrila brought into the lounge where she joined her shortly after together with Shepard.

* * *

"I hope you'll forgive my reluctance to accept your words, Matriarch," Liara began to say politely as she sat down, having learned the asari's age from her genetic sample.

"It is quite alright," Syrila nodded. "And please... it is just Syrila for you" she smiled.

"Thank you. And you may call me Liara," she smiled in return.

"Now..." Liara began. "As far I know now, and as history recorded, Benezia T'Soni had only one sister – _Atala T'Soni_" she said and Syrila nodded with sad smile.

"It was also recorded that Atala T'Soni died in a shuttle accident two centuries ago – long before I was born. I have never met her. Are you saying that she somehow survived... are you saying that you are Atala T'Soni?" Liara asked her, desperately trying to find a logical explanation to this situation.

Shepard smiled sadly and nodded her head. Liara once told her about her aunt Atala who tragically died before Liara was born.

Atala was younger sister of Benezia. She was a politician. Her career highpoint was being an overseer of Serrice city for over a century. She had even fathered two children in her life. Young Liara had met her cousins a few times over the years, but they were never really close. Additionally, they had a surname after their birth mother, as was asari's tradition, and therefore did not share Liara's family name.

"No, Atala was also my sister" Syrila said.

"Then you have to forgive my skepticism, Syrila, but as far as I am aware, Atala was Benezia's only sister and I have no other aunt" Liara said, crossing her hands defensively over her chest.

"You are absolutely right, Liara" Syrila said sadly. "And if history played differently, you would continue to be right."

"But times changed – Atala died, Benezia died, our entire species was almost exterminated..." Syrila's voice hitched as she said the next part.

"And you… you were left alone... so young" she said wistfully.

"I felt it was simply selfish and dangerous of me to hide myself any longer..."

"Hide yourself?" Liara asked. "What do you mean? Who are you?"

"To answer any of that, I'll have to start from the beginning" Syrila said and glanced at Shepard, seemingly inviting her into the conversation.

"I suppose that after what happened in the war, you both now what an Ardat-Yakshi is?" she asked them.

Their mouths fell open as they both slowly nodded, both dreading what Syrila was going to say next.

"When I was 50 years old, I was diagnosed with a certain obscure medical condition..."

"Are you saying that you are...?" Shepard began to ask, frozen in fear.

"Yes, I am an Ardat-Yakshi..." Syrila admitted, clearly straining herself to form the words.

She saw them both tense in their chairs. "Before you begin to panic and summon your commandos to pacify me, know that I have never done an intimate melding in my life… I am not an addict."

"The only irresistible urge I am feeling is to drain this glass of juice, since I am thirsty and it looks delicious" she said and picked up her glass with fruit juice from the table. She took few gulps from it before she put it down.

"I assure you that I mean you no harm" she said in calmest voice possible. "Quite the opposite in fact"

"How is that possible?" Liara eventually gasped.

Syrila chuckled.

"You pose the exact same question that my mother asked the doctor over a thousand years ago" Syrila answered, losing herself in her memories.

"The doctor did not have a good answer back then and neither do I have it now... some things are just destined to be and there is nothing we can do about them... My condition is something I came to peace with a long time ago" Syrila said.

"Alright," Shepard finally said, breaking the ominous silence. "So you are an Ardat-Yakshi... no problem, I have met few of them" she said and Syrila furrowed her face for a moment.

"But how exactly do you go from being an Ardat-Yakshi to being Liara's secret long lost aunt?" Shepard asked incredulously.

"And although I personally never really condone the practice... aren't you supposed to live in a monastery?" Shepard asked, more and more confused by the minute.

She did not see the look of understanding slowly blossoming on Liara's face, before it was replaced by disgusted expression.

She squeezed the armrests of her chair tightly before she spoke again.

"They were ashamed of you, weren't they?" Liara asked, anger boiling inside her.

Syrila looked at Liara and slowly nodded.

"Not exactly... but close," she admitted.

"What I am going to tell you now will sound like I am complaining, but truly... I am not" she assured them.

"In fact, with centuries of experience, I feel that my family did the best choice they could... for all our sakes" she said.

"Ehh, the human is lost here... what are you two talking about?" Shepard asked in frustration.

Syrila turned to Shepard.

"I am sure you know that the Ardat-Yakshi condition is a great embarrassment to my people..." Syrila said, looking at her.

"Yes... I met a justicar while she was hunting one. She made it abundantly clear what they represented," Shepard said.

"Yes..." Syrila said as she listened to her words.

"Well, what do you think would be people's reaction if an Ardat-Yakshi was born into one of the oldest and most powerful families on Thessia, mm?"

Shepard considered that and dawn of realization was slowly creeping over her.

"Not good, I think... horrible" Shepard said.

"Unspeakable..." Liara supplied, sounding guilty as she said the word.

Syrila smiled at her. "Exactly the right word... **unspeakable**."

"Something like this could never, EVER, be made public" she said.

"For the sake of the T'Soni family, I could not be revealed as an Ardat-Yakshi... which meant that I could not be sent to the monastery either" Syrila said and Liara continued to nod in ashamed understanding.

"Now if I were born to an ordinary family, I would not have a choice and a justicar would sooner or later show up to take me away or kill me if I refused..." Syrila said bitterly.

"But fortunately for me, our family had an influence and absurd amount of money" Syrila chuckled.

"Eventually mother offered me a choice... I would either give up my birthright and go into a willing exile... or I would be turned over to the asari authorities, our family would be shamed and I would be confined into a monastery anyway" she said.

"Naturally, I chose the first option. Mother sent me to a planet called Hyetiana – maybe you have heard of it. Most call it an ice hell," Syrila said before smiling.

"I think that mother believed the ice planet would cool down my natural urges... so to speak" she laughed.

"Anyway, I was given a good place to live, large amount of money and _Laya_ – my most trusted governess – stayed with me for a century before I fully grew up... my mother and my sisters communicated with me often over the extranet..."

"I guess what I meant to say is that I was never really lonely as you might expect" she assured them.

"Then why there is no trace of your existence?" Liara asked her.

"That was mother's condition... my name would be forever erased from records," Syrila sighed sadly.

"Benezia and Atala – my two older sisters – were forbidden to ever mention my name.

"I was never officially introduced into the society, so my disappearance was relatively easy to cover up"

"Over the next decades, my mother – your grandmother – used her influence to systematically eliminate traces of my existence from any public and private records.

"In the end, Syrila T'Soni was no more and eventually, nobody remembered that there once was a third T'Soni sister at all" Syrila finished her story and fell silent.

By this point, Liara was softly crying.

"I imagine that you must hate our family... that you must hate **me**" Liara wept. "What we did to you..."

"...was necessary" Syrila said with conviction.

She stood up and went to her niece, pulling Liara out of her chair and into a hug.

"I love our family, I loved my sisters, and I love you, Liara" she said gently, comforting the crying asari.

"I was so happy when Benezia had you... I was here when you were born, you know..." she said to her with honest smile.

Liara stopped crying and looked at her confused.

"How? They sent you away to Hyetiana!" she asked as she slowly wiped her tears away.

"After a century on that ice planet, mother eventually allowed me to travel the galaxy under carefully manufactured faked identity"

"I wasn't Syrila, I wasn't T'Soni, but I was allowed to serve my family in various _small_ ways despite always having to stay in shadows..." she said to her niece.

"Over the years, I was forced to mask myself more and more as I started to resemble Benezia greatly, but I was free… I travelled all over the galaxy, saw almost all inhabited worlds… it was a good and interesting life, Liara… more than someone like me could ever hope for" she assured her.

"As years went by, I became a master of disguise… so good that even my own family had trouble recognizing me when I didn't want them to"

Syrila then went quiet for a moment and examined Liara closely.

"When Benezia went into labour, I secretly posed as one of the nurses..." she eventually said and Liara intently listened to her.

"I was the first one to hold you in my hands..." Syrila said and stroked Liara's cheek.

"I can't have my own children, you know... but I thought that you were the most beautiful baby I've ever seen" she said and Shepard, who was watching the exchange in respectful silence, began to tear up too.

"When I turned to give you over to Benezia, I almost didn't want to let you go..." she said sadly.

"My sister didn't know it was me, I was wearing a make up and a surgical mask. We did not see each other in person for nearly a century... not since Atala's death."

"But our eyes met for a moment and I could have sworn that she just _knew_ it was me even as she took you from my hands"

"Your mother loved you very much... and so do I"

Tears were now streaming down Syrila's face as she hugged her niece again.

"Don't you dare think for even a single second that I would hate you, Liara T'Soni" she said and pressed her tightly.


	3. Chapter 3

Syrila T'Soni stayed in her niece's house for the next week, slowly getting to know Benezia's young daughter.

They were all getting along very well. Liara was overjoyed to have found another blood relative after believing for a long time that she was the last T'Soni.

They would spend hours and hours talking about all sorts of topics. They both had literally lifetimes of stories to share and while Syrila kept her tabs on Liara over the years, it was still unique for her to get to know her niece personally. For her part, Liara intently listened to Syrila's stories about the members of her family, mainly her mother – Benezia, but also her other sister Atala and Syrila's mother (Liara's grandmother) who both died before Liara was born.

Syrila deeply regretted her inability to safely meld with Liara. Otherwise, she would've gladly mentally shared all her family memories, all memories of Benezia with her niece. Liara tried to tell her that it was fine, but Syrila still apologized profoundly.

Everything was calm and peaceful… until Shepard was forced to leave for a while to fulfill her spectre duties and Liara's own father – matriarch Aethyta, decided to visit her daughter in the mean time.

Due to Syrila's status as an ardat-yakshi, Liara could not tell Aethyta anything over the remote communication. Nevertheless, Syrila agreed to meet Aethyta in person and so Liara invited her father over.

When the asari matriarch arrived, Liara told her that Benezia's sister Syrila was staying with them.

Aethyta's reaction was truly characteristic. Before Liara could explain the rest of the story, she was already storming inside.

"Where is she? Where is the imposter? What a load of crap! Nezzy had no sister!" she mumbled as she barged into the lounge where Syrila was currently relaxing.

"Listen you blue hussy… I don't know what kind of game you are playing on my little girl, but…" Aethyta began to say but then she froze as she properly looked at Syrila.

"That's impossible…" she eventually mumbled as she stared at the Syrila who was leisurely lounging in her comfortable chair.

"Hello Aethyta," Syrila said to her and politely inclined her head, ignoring Aethyta's earlier violent entry completely.

"You look so much like her…" Aethyta said wistfully as she slowly sat in another chair in front of Syrila's.

"I know… actually, a significant hurdle for someone like me but I learned to get by" she chuckled sadly.

A breathless asari came rushing into the room. "Oh," Liara said when she saw the matriarchs sitting close to each other and conversing.

"You haven't killed each other, so I am guessing that's a good sign…" Liara said, relieved as she joined them.

"That may yet be, kiddo…" she said to Liara. "Look," she turned back to Syrila. "You look enough like Nezzy that I really do not want to smear your pretty face on the wall, but this is super weird so please just kindly tell me what is going on," Aethyta said.

"I was going to tell you, father… if you hadn't rushed in like this" Liara pointed out, earning her a glare from her father as Syrila began to speak.

For the next 20 minutes, Syrila recounted her story to Aethyta. During the course of her story, Liara was little horrified when her father began to throw lewd glances at Syrila – on the hindsight, this should not come as a great surprise to her. After all, Syrila was very similar in physical appearance to Liara's mother and her father was never known for her tact. In addition, Syrila's natural ardat-yakshi enhanced seductiveness was no doubt already playing haywire with her single and unattached father.

When Syrila revealed her ardat-yakshi condition, Liara hoped that this would function as a cold shower for her father's advances… that perhaps she would even be repulsed… but sadly, this was not the case.

Her first reaction to the news was: "Are you sure?"

When Syrila assured her that she was quite certain, she sighed sadly. "Too bad"

Then she lowered her head and quietly mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like: "_Would be worth it…_" After which, Liara gave her fake punch to her shoulder.

"I can't believe that Nezzy hid her amazingly hot sister from me for all those years!" she exclaimed, sounding almost angry, while making Syrila blush.

"Ardat-yakshi" Liara added, warning her father. "_Her amazingly hot __**ardat-yakshi**__ sister…_" she wanted to correct her, but then she realized just how that sounded and settled for an awkward silence instead.

"It's not like it was her choice, Aethyta" Syrila said in defense of her sister.

"Our mother made that decision almost a thousand years ago… for the good of the family. Benezia and I – we were both _good _daughters. We wouldn't defy her wishes even after she passed away."

"Yeah… she was always a goody two shoes. Even before she became a matriarch" Aethyta mused.

"You know, my father was a krogan while mom worked as a commando during the rebellions… they essentially killed each other over this when dad finally found out" she snorted.

"Then, years later, I learned that my grandmother – Altana – was the one who actually **started** the krogan rebellions by assassinating one of the krogan warlords who… guess what, also happened to be Altana's bondmate and my maternal grandfather!" Aethyta made an ironic laugh.

"My point is… I used to think my family was **really **screwed up… but erasing an entire person from it?" she gave a rhetorical question.

"Nope… I don't think that even we have done that… Seems that you T'Sonis are a special lot in every way" she said.

"If an ardat-yakshi was born to your family, you would have done the same thing" Syrila whispered to her.

Aethyta wanted to reject such notion, but when she considered it carefully, she realized that Syrila might be correct. Certainly, both her mother and especially her grandmother were willing to sacrifice literally everything for the good of the family. She wouldn't put even something like this past them.

"Maybe" she reluctantly admitted under Syrila's gaze.

"You know… I have to wonder whether Nezzy and I might have worked out better if you were around" Aethyta said, remembering her lost lover.

"When we were melding, there was always such emptiness in her soul when it came to her family" Aethyta recounted, sounding sad as she spoke.

"I thought that it was the aftermath of her sister's – Atala's – tragic death… but now… now I wonder whether it was _you_ who was missing in Benezia's heart.

Syrila listened to her words and had to suppress tears. "I am sorry Aethyta… I tried to be there for my family as best as I could… I know that it wasn't enough… that it will never be enough" she sighed.

"It wasn't your fault…" Liara said resolutely as she sat on the armrest of Syrila's chair and put a hand over her shoulder. "You did everything you could. I don't blame you in the least," she reassured her.

"Thank you Liara… it means everything for me to hear you say that" Syrila said as she squeezed Liara's hand in hers.

"Sorry Syrila, I didn't mean to upset you… I suppose that I don't blame you either" Aethyta said.

"I just wish that you could have witnessed the happiness that Nezzy and I once had… that's all" Aethyta said and looked at Liara. "The happiness that we still have" she said and smiled at her daughter proudly.

"Oh I was more around than you think…" Syrila said mysteriously and after Aethyta's questioning look she told her about her role during Liara's birth, making the old matriarch's eyes water up a bit before she quickly wiped the tears away.

"That wasn't the only time though…" she said afterwards, making both Liara and Aethyta make a surprised look and listen attentively.

"It wasn't?" they asked in unison.

"No…" Syrila confirmed and turned to Aethyta.

"Do you remember your bonding ceremony with Benezia?" she asked and smiled.

"I do" Aethyta said. "And you weren't there… Believe me that I would have remembered you," she chuckled.

"Not necessarily… do you remember the asari who was holding your bondmate bracelets for you?" Syrila asked and gave her a confident smile.

Aethyta frowned and looked deep inside her memory.

While the asari did not possess an instantaneous eidetic memory like the drell did, an experienced asari could facilitate a similar experience by calming her mind and focusing on a single thought out of millions of others. It was a similar process by which asari were able to share memories and experiences with one another during the meld. Except that in this case, only one mind was trying to isolate the specific memory, making the entire process infinitely more difficult to perform since it was purely psychological process that was going against basic asari biology. In human terms, it was like trying to learn the sound of one hand clapping…

Typically, only asari matriarchs had an ability to perfectly recall their memories on whim, their mind disciplined by centuries of training. It was part of the reason that made them such revered advisors in the asari society. Fortunately… Aethyta was one of those matriarchs.

She closed her eyes and after a moment, she came two centuries back… _she was holding Benezia's hands in her own and her bondmate to be was smiling at her while wearing her beautiful wedding dress._

She sighed. It was easy to loose oneself in memories like this.

_Instead, she forced herself to look at the asari standing nearby who was holding their bracelets on the ceremonial plate. She came into focus as she gave them their bracelets and said the holy words…_

Aethyta opened her eyes and looked at Syrila.

"Wasn't you. Couldn't be… she looked nothing like you and was certainly a maiden at that time…" she said.

"By that time, I could disguise myself so good that even I would not recognize myself in the mirror" she said and laughed.

"Do you remember the words, though?" she said and recited the traditional asari words associated with the bracelet bearer.

Aethyta thought back again, this time focusing on what the asari said and gasped when she heard the exact same words… uttered in the exactly same **voice** as she just did now, two centuries later.

"It was you!" Aethyta said incredulously.

"I would not miss my sister's wedding for anything… and it is traditional for the bracelet bearer to be a blood relative – sister maybe, isn't it?" Syrila said.

"I thought that you were just one of Nezzy's acolytes," Aethyta admitted.

"For that day… I was," Syrila said.

"I often posed as one of my sister's acolytes over the years… never using the same disguise twice. It allowed me to help her _a little bit_ when necessary or to just meet with her," Syrila said, lost in her own memories this time.

"After you two split up… I was a sitter for little Liara more than one time…" she said, looking her niece over. "You were a wonderful child" she told her and stroked her crest gently.

"I- there is one thing I wanted to ask you" Liara stuttered as she looked between Syrila and Aethyta. "Both of you."

"Well, we are **both** here, so spit it kid" Aethyta beckoned her with smile.

"I was wondering why Benezia wasn't worried to have a pureblood daughter after her own sister turned out to be an active ardat-yakshi… I mean isn't the condition found only in pureblooded asari?" Liara asked, the question weighing on her mind heavily for several days now.

Aethyta considered Liara's words for a moment. "That is a good question kid…" she said.

"Before we had you, Benezia and I actually had a talk about this. I even said that I was fine with it if she wanted to invite some alien over for the night… just so you would not be a pureblood asari… I admit, that the possibility of ardat-yakshi never crossed my mind back then"

"But Benezia was adamant that the pureblood stereotype was ridiculous and we should pay no heed to it… but why wasn't she worried about you inheriting the condition… I really don't know. Syrila?" Aethyta turned to look at the other matriarch.

Syrila frowned. "That is a misconception foolishly propagated by our own people. My condition is a completely random genetic mutation. There are no predispositions to it" she said.

"But the statistics…" Liara protested.

"… are being misread," Syrila said resolutely.

"How?" Liara asked, still not convinced after years of hearing something different.

"For many reasons" Syrila said.

"First, the ardat-yakshi is most likely to be discovered in the same place where there is also the highest percentage of pureblooded asari – on Thessia"

"Secondly, when an ardat-yakshi was born to an alien parent, they usually managed to hide their daughter from the asari authorities much more effectively than when both parents were asari – there were numerous diplomatic incidents over the years where the Turian Hierarchy refused to extradite a discovered ardat-yakshi on the grounds that she was born to a turian citizen. Especially when that citizen was a prominent figure – like a general… or a primarch" Syrila said.

"I haven't heard anything about this!" Aethyta protested.

"Of course not…" Syrila laughed. "Our people always hid any news like that from the public's eyes…" she said bitterly.

"And third… asari's stupid prejudice against purebloods and their fear of the ardat-yakshi… they were just very convenient for the average simpletons to combine into one" Syrila chuckled.

"Trust me, Liara" Syrila said. "I studied the ardat-yakshi condition for many decades, going as far as 40 000 years into the past.

"I am quite certain of my findings…And I told the same thing to Benezia when she once asked me the same question as you just did today" Syrila said.

"She indeed worried at first as you suggested – but she also trusted me on that matter completely."

"Then I suppose I should be thanking you" Aethyta said.

"You are welcome… I knew that you loved her deeply, Aethyta. The last thing I wanted was for you to fear to have a child because of me."

A silence settled between them for a moment as the three asari slowly digested the information they just learned and the conflicting emotions that came with them.

"Did you stay in contact with my mother over the years?" Liara eventually asked.

"Yes…" Syrila said and her expression turned dark. "Until she went to deal with one rogue turian spectre and I lost her forever…"

"Saren…" both Liara and Aethyta hissed.

"When she told me her plan, I begged her not to go… but she was adamant," Syrila said. "I miss her very much" she admitted.

"As do I" Liara said sadly. "My mother may have died… But in the end, she gave me and Shepard everything we needed to defeat Saren and the Sovereign… we could not have stopped the reapers without her" Liara said.

A single tear rolled down Aethyta's cheek. She looked around the room and finally saw the serrice ice wine that was conveniently settled on the table – along with three glasses.

She reached for it and poured for all of them, placing the glasses in front of the other two asari while taking one for herself.

Understanding her intentions, both Syrila and Liara raised their glasses.

"To Benezia T'Soni…" Aethyta said before adding in "…to my bondmate" and quickly drinking the wine.

"… to my sister" Syrila followed.

"… to my mother" Liara finished the circle.

* * *

Later that day, Liara was forced to attend to her Shadow Broker duties and so she left her father and her aunt to their own devices for several hours. They were getting on really well and Liara had no reason to worry about anything.

That was until she came back and found the two matriarchs in the most impossible… and terrifying situation.

Syrila was sitting on the floor in a meditative position. She had deeply calm and peaceful expression on her face. Meanwhile Aethyta was kneeling in front of her. Her hands were grasping Syrila's head and her face was scrunched up as if in deep concentration.

A faint glow of biotics surrounded them both and their eyes were ink black… they were clearly melding.

"NO!" Liara shouted in panic and ran to them, trying to separate them. However, she was unable to physically break the firm dark energy connection that existed between them.

Just as Liara was about to prime her own biotics and blast them apart, Aethyta gasped as she removed her hands from Syrila.

"I am fine, kid" she rasped in a weak voice, looking up at her daughter who was towering over her.

"What the hell was that? Are you two insane?" Liara shouted even as she helped her father up and quickly scanned her brain with her omni-tool.

"You know what Syrila is! What were you thinking?" she said when she was certain her father was going to live.

"I asked her to do this" Aethyta said.

"Why?" Liara asked in horrified voice. "You could have been killed!"

Meanwhile Syrila woke up from her seemingly deep trance and calmly stood up from the floor.

"She is all right, Liara. The danger was… minimal" Syrila explained.

"I wanted her to show me her memories of Nezzy" Aethyta said as they all moved to sit in their chairs again.

"Oh, father" Liara said, suddenly understanding, even if she was still very furious with both of them.

"But you can't meld to exchange memories!" Liara turned to Syrila. "You told me yourself…"

"Actually, I can – using a mental trick that mother told me a long time ago" Syrila explained.

"I can seal a portion of my mind away, leaving only specific thoughts and memories outside" Syrila said.

Suddenly Liara remembered Noveria. "I think Benezia used that method to preserve a part of her mind from the indoctrination" she said.

"Yes, Benezia knew that technique too" Syrila affirmed.

"In my case, I can use it to control my mind's destructive potential enough so that a person with enough mental fortitude can safely do a shallow meld with me" she said. "This is not the first time I have done that… both Benezia and my mother did this with me many times."

Liara listened carefully.

"Could I do this with you?" she eventually asked.

"I am afraid not, Liara" Syrila said sadly. "Only a matriarch's mental barriers are strong enough to withstand my mind… briefly"

"My biotics are just as strong as my mother's!" she protested vehemently.

"Yes, you're power is great, Liara… but control only comes with age and experience" Aethyta said.

"If the blue beauty here accidently started to consume my mind…" she looked at Syrila who frowned little at her words. "… I would be able to break the meld."

"You, on the other hand, wouldn't stand a chance."

Liara knew they were right, but it was still very much unfair…

Aethyta looked on her pouting daughter for a moment.

"You know, we did not do this **just **out of our selfish desires," Aethyta said with a knowing smile as she stood up.

"I don't understand…" Liara said, looking between Syrila and Aethyta.

"You can't meld with me, Liara… but she can meld with you… and she just took my memories from my mind" Syrila gestured to Aethyta.

"You deserve to have my memories of Benezia and this was the only way I could give them to you…"

"You didn't…" Liara gasped as she suddenly understood what her father and aunt just did for her.

"We most certainly did" Aethyta smiled proudly. "Come here, kid" she said and offered her hands to Liara.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" she said both to Aethyta and Syrila happily before her father pulled her close to herself and their eyes went black.


	4. Chapter 4

After Shepard returned from her spectre mission, Liara's father was already gone. Shepard was sorry that she has missed her, but she was certain that she would see her again soon. After her reconciliation with Liara, the matriarch visited them often.

Meanwhile, there was still another guest in the T'Soni mansion to whom she could play the host.

After two weeks, Syrila T'Soni was still staying with them, although she told Shepard and Liara that she would be leaving soon, saying that it was time for her to go.

Liara urged her not to, wanting to get to know her aunt better, but Syrila said that she still had duties and obligations in the galaxy to return to.

She however promised Liara that she would not disappear again and that she would be back soon.

"Before the ardat-yakshi matriarch would go away, Shepard needed to privately talk to her about something.

And as luck would have it, Syrila was currently occupying the room where Shepard was heading.

Before she entered the room, Shepard stopped at a large window in the hallway which afforded her a nice view of the entire estate.

In this day and age, Liara's ancestral household was a vast complex of buildings. On the outside the main house had a very historical look, but in reality, it has been extensively reconstructed every few millenniums over the course of history. Every generation of T'Sonis and their bondmates added something to it.

In addition to the main mansion, there were several smaller buildings placed around it, containing facilities such as swimming pools, garages and even a small shuttle dock.

Liara's family also bought out the surrounding land as far as the eye could see and so the household was surrounded by vast expanse of land where the nature reigned freely.

The parts immediately surrounding the house were meticulously cultivated by gardeners, giving it a civilized, park-like look. Contrasting this, the further parts were mostly untamed, allowing one a glimpse on the true Thessian wildlife.

Of course, the reaper war was terribly devastating to the planet's nature, even more so than on the other planets.

The reapers purposefully drove several animal species, which were actually a threat to their occupation, to extinction. Many animals on Thessia have had a truly terrifying biotical powers. And while they were always largely non-hostile to the native asari, they aggressively reacted to the synthetic oppressors encroaching on their territories, unwittingly saving many asari civilians in the process.

After the asari realized that the reapers were focusing on large population centers, millions of civilians went into hiding in Thessia's jungle-like rain forests. The reapers would send husks to capture them, but the animals living there would react aggressively to the foreign presence.

After entire platoons of husks kept being wiped out by single species of a flying creature and its heavy warp strikes, the reapers decided to deal with it personally – sentient reaper destroyers descended on Thessia's rain forests which ultimately had a devastating effect on them.

Nevertheless, Shepard heard that all species that were lost during the war could be restored. The cloning attempts were already underway and the preliminary results were very encouraging.

Looking out of the window, Shepard shook her head and continued into the room where she was originally headed. She looked quite nervous as she entered the large room and saw Syrila.

The asari matriarch was wearing a form-fitting suite that was accentuating her body's curves to a dangerous degree.

Shepard was absolutely devoted to Liara of course, but she had to admit, that if she wasn't, she would be easily tempted by her aunt… there was just something about her.

"_Her body will tell yours that she'll bring unimaginable ecstasy…"_ a words justicar Samara once told her echoed in her mind and she shuddered.

She went behind a nearby screen to change herself, donning her own sport clothes – because that's what the room was – a gym.

When she emerged from behind the screen, Syrila still had not noticed her, deeply immersed in her exercise, her eyes closed.

Of course, asari gyms and exercises were different from the human ones.

They focused less on physical strength and more on their biotic abilities. Which also meant the equipment was different.

Syrila was currently sitting cross legged on a mat placed on the ground in a meditative position. She was softly glowing with blue aura as she focused on the exercising machine before her.

It was a machine designed to train asari's precision control over her biotics. It was also a popular game used at asari parties.

It consisted of five metallic spheres, each about ten centimeters in radius, and mounted on vertical bars placed next to each other. The individual metallic spheres were allowed to move up or down along the bars.

Inside each sphere was a miniature but powerful mass effect generator that could rapidly and randomly shift the spheres mass.

The goal of the exercise was to use one's biotics to compensate for the rapidly shifting mass of the spheres and to maintain them in the centre of the structure.

During the exercise, a computer would measure all deviations from the centre and assign penalty points when the spheres would move out of the centre. The goal was to have as low score as possible.

There were different levels of difficulty, based on how fast and how often would the mass effect generators shift the spheres mass.

But the main difficulty level was based on the number of spheres one used. Not nearly every asari could exercise with all five spheres.

Smoothly handling five randomly shifting masses required an immense concentration and few asari could play the game at this level at all.

While Syrila was currently playing with all five spheres, Shepard knew that Liara could well handle only three. The asari children and aliens then usually played with only one sphere.

Many could not play it at all.

Shepard chuckled as she remembered a funny story from when Wrex came to visit them on Thessia.

Shepard would take her to this gym and the krogan suddenly wanted to try the game. Naturally, he went for all five spheres from the start but was shocked when they immediately went up and down, not a single sphere remaining in the centre.

Angry, he gradually switched to lower number of spheres and when he still could not keep the damn thing in the centre, he roared and smashed a warp into it, turning the machine into a scrap metal and forcing Shepard to replace it with a new one.

Syrila on the other hand was handling all five spheres with a great precision, their deviations small and quickly corrected, Shepard noted with appreciation.

While most of the machines in the room were suited to asari, Shepard had also brought in more traditional human exercising equipment.

She started her regimen by pulling up dumbbells in various positions. Afterwards, she went to a treadmill and ran for about half an hour.

As she ran, her eyes wondered around the room, examining the other equipment.

There were more machines that focused on brute biotical strength rather than control.

Liara's favorite was one that was composed of a single large block of cube shaped metal that was tethered to the rest of the machines on all sides except the one facing the exerciser.

The asari could try to pull, throw or move the block in any direction and a computer would measure her strength.

This exercise was much more favored by biotic aliens as it did not require a fine control of one's biotics that a non-asari rarely achieved.

And, as it turned out, it was also popular with quarter krogans…

There were also more machines that focused on speed and aim of biotics and also on the less common disciplines like stasis, singularity or flares.

At the same time that Shepard finished her running, Syrila also finished her biotic exercise. Shepard looked at the display and noticed that she achieved a high-score, her biotic control surpassing Liara's and also Benezia's by large margin.

"Hello, Shepard. Good to see you again," Syrila bowed slightly when she looked at her. "Will you join me at the bar?" she asked, gesturing her hand.

"Hello Syrila," Shepard responded, giving the asari a bow of her own. "Just give me a minute" she said and watched Syrila nod and walk to the small refreshment station that was found in the room adjacent o the gym.

Shepard herself went to change her clothes and shower herself.

It was another thing that she could not help but envy the asari.

Syrila probably just burned thousands of calories and yet she looked as fresh as ever. On the other hand, Shepard burned only hundreds of them and was already all sticky and gross from the sweat.

Liara always rolled her eyes at her, when Shepard complained to her about _asari's annoying perfectness_. There was, however, also a smug smile on her lips…

When Shepard finished her shower, she put on new clothes and went to the "bar". They called it a bar, but in reality, it was just a small lounge with a refreshment station containing snacks and various energy drinks.

Until Aethyta's intervention a few months ago, there wasn't even any alcohol to be found.

Shepard saw Syrila sitting on a couch while she sipped her energy juice and quickly ate a large cake placed on a coffee table in front of her.

Shepard shrugged as she took a human energy drink from the station.

She knew that the asari drinks here were laced with eezo, but even if she removed it, she knew that they were basically sugar with a little water in them, the asari being notorious with their high-caloric diet that would give any human a diabetes in few months.

Shepard smiled as she sat in a chair opposite to Syrila and watched the asari matriarch stuffing her mouth full with the cake.

"_They can eat almost anything and still keep body of a goddess… I heard that human fashion models absolutely loath the asari"_ Shepard thought and chuckled in her mind.

"Shepard," the asari managed to say when she swallowed a sizable piece of the cake.

"I was hoping to see you again before I left… do you want some?" Syrila politely, but reluctantly asked, pointing at the cake.

She looked visibly relived when Shepard refused.

"Syrila, I am glad I still got hold of you here" Shepard said and took a large sip of her energy drink. "There is something I've been meaning to ask you…"

"An important thing." she said seriously.

While Shepard was overjoyed to see her bondmate this happy at finding her last living relative, there was one thing she had to clear up with Syrila.

"Of course, go ahead" seeing Shepard's serious expression, Syrila put the cake down on the table and listened intently to the human spectre.

Shepard sighed. "I need to ask you something, Syrila, and I do not want you to take this the wrong way, because I am really glad that you came into our lives... I really am" Shepard assured her.

Syrila nodded at her with amusement. "Ok. I am sensing a 'but' coming up now, Shepard..."

"But..." Shepard said and stopped for a moment.

"Who are you really, Syrila? I know that you did not lie to us, but you didn't tell us the whole truth about yourself either, did you?" Shepard asked, watching Syrila's expression turn pensive and perhaps slightly ashamed.

"When I first saw you... I sensed that you were the most dangerous person I've ever met…" Shepard said.

"…that you were a power to reckon with and you knew it"

Shepard paused for a while.

"You said that you occasionally helped your family in some _little ways_, but it was more than that, wasn't it?" Shepard finally questioned her.

Syrila stared at her for a moment, thinking her words through.

"Are you certain that you really want to ask me that question, Shepard?" she eventually asked, her expression turning haughty for a second.

Shepard nodded solemnly.

"Yes… If I am ever to trust you with Liara... with my family, I need to know the full truth"

Syrila laughed bitterly.

"You have trust issues with me? How do you think that I feel about you?"

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked in confusion.

"Under ordinary circumstances, a T'Soni matriarch would meld with your mind to verify that your intentions regarding Liara were honorable..." Syrila told her.

"Obviously, I am unable to do that, since it would prove to be completely fatal to you"

Shepard wanted to smile, but thought better of it when she saw Syrila's absolutely serious expression.

"I would never hurt Liara!" Shepard protested.

"And I believe you Shepard... if I didn't, I would never let you near her"

"Yeah, Aethyta said something similar to me a long time ago..." Shepard sighed.

"I am not surprised, there was always fire in her... but unlike Aethyta, I am actually able to carry my threats out, Shepard" Syrila warned her.

"If you ever betrayed Liara, I would hunt you down and destroy you in ways you can not possibly imagine... you know what I am" Syrila said, dark flames almost dancing in her eyes as Shepard visibly recoiled.

"I thought you told us that you never melded with anyone..." Shepard pointed out.

"There are more horrible ways an ardat-yakshi can destroy a person by..." Syrila said, looking straight into Shepard's eyes.

"I think now we are getting to what I initially asked you about," Shepard peeped meekly, still determined to know the truth despite Syrila's reluctance to tell her.

Syrila threw her hands in the air in exasperation.

"Very well, Shepard. If you really want to do this, I'll tell you everything," Syrila said.

"What do you know about the ardat-yakshi?" Syrila asked her.

"Just what justicar Samara told me" Shepard admitted, remembering well her talks with the asari justicar on the SR-2 while she was hunting her daughter – Morinth.

"I was afraid of that," Syrila said and sighed sadly. "Justicars always had very twisted and ridiculous notions about my kind."

"I will have to start from the beginning then..." Syrila said, shifting and sitting cross legged on her couch when Shepard gestured for her to continue.

"You know that ardat-yakshi asari are sterile... we can not procreate" Syrila said and watched Shepard nod.

"Have you ever considered why then, the condition even exists among my people?" she asked.

"If the mutation prevented procreation, the evolution should have eliminated it a long time ago," Syrila told her. "And yet, it is still as much prevalent as during asari prehistorics..."

"Why do you think that is?"

Shepard furrowed her brows and considered her words.

"Maybe the mutation is recessive? There are asari who carry it but do not directly suffer from it?" Shepard proposed and Syrila smiled at her appreciatively.

"Yes, it is as you say and that is a prevalent explanation among asari doctors and evolutionary biologists," Syrila confirmed.

"However even recessive mutation that is so obviously harmful should gradually decrease in population during the years... nevertheless, it rather stayed constant."

"I don't know then..." Shepard admitted, the engineer inside her unhappy about not being able to solve the scientific problem.

"I don't expect you to solve it in five minutes, Shepard," Syrila assured her.

"It took me almost a century to get a working theory about it myself..."

"Err, just tell me already" Shepard growled from growing curiosity.

"The ardat-yakshi mutation can be evolutionary beneficial to the asari... by giving her powers to protect her family better" Syrila said.

"What?" Shepard gasped, not expecting that answer.

"Think about it, Shepard... the only natural way a sterile organism can increase its genetic fitness is if it somehow helps its fertile genetic relatives have more progeny themselves."

"All ardat-yakshi are genetically programmed to be fiercely loyal and protective of their families" Syrila explained.

"When I realized this, it was easy to start to see connections in asari history"

"I examined history of all noble families and discovered a very curious thing…"

"I found that during their most significant raises in power, there was almost always an ardat-yakshi asari working from behind as their agent..."

"Like you did for the T'Soni family?" Shepard asked, finally seeing the connection.

"Yes..." Syrila confirmed. "And I wasn't the first one either, I believe."

"There were _**more**_ ardat-yakshi in the T'Soni family?" Shepard asked disbelievingly.

"According to my estimate, at least five others over last 40 000 years" Syrila told her.

"Your family went to great deal of trouble to erase your existence from all records... how do you know any of this?" Shepard pointed out.

"Didn't they do the same with the others?" Shepard challenged her.

"That was a problem at first," Syrila admitted. "But as I understood it better and better, I began to look for a specific _lack of evidence_ rather than an evidence itself."

"In all instances, there was a same specific kind of discrepancy in the records... and every time, the T'Soni family grew constantly more powerful over the next thousand years..."

"The same was the case with other families... a trace of tempering with the records followed by an unprecedented growth of influence lasting for a period of one asari lifetime."

"This is..." Shepard gasped. "... unbelievable"

"I know," Syrila agreed with Shepard's sentiment as they both fell silent and thought about their conversation.

"WAIT!" Shepard suddenly gasped, startling Syrila for a moment.

"What about Morinth? She was hunted by her own mother for centuries! She really did not like her family at all!" Shepard said.

"Tell me about her," Syrila urged her and Shepard spent the next ten minutes describing Samara's lifelong mission to hunt her rogue ardat-yakshi daughter.

"Well there you have it, Shepard..." Syrila said when Shepard finished her story.

"The girl was insane... rejected by her family and hunted by her own mother for centuries? That must have gone against all her natural instincts" Syrila said.

"What you just told me is actually another prove of my theory... just try to guess the one common thing all those rogue ardat-yakshi nut cases share in common?"

"They all have been utterly rejected by their families?" Shepard offered, seeing Syrila's point.

"Exactly..." Syrila confirmed. For an ardat-yakshi, her family is everything. Take that away from her, and all that is left is a loose canon with no purpose, no future and no control... they spend their lives flying around the galaxy and melding with everyone they see until they are killed themselves."

"You might think that my family rejected my as well, Shepard, but it wasn't the case. My mother always acknowledged me and loved me as her daughter, at least privately. My sisters never broke contact with me and I was often around when it mattered…" Syrila said.

"But this Morinth… I bet that Samara would not even admit their relationship into her face. I bet that she would grow angry whenever Morinth would call her 'mother'… am I right?" Syrila asked and Shepard nodded, remembering very well their fight in the apartment on Omega.

"What about the monasteries? The ardat-yakshi are kept away from their families there, aren't they?" Shepard asked.

"The only reason the ardat-yakshi monasteries can work is that the ardat-yakshi there instinctively come to see their convent as their family… and forget all about their biological one" Syrila said.

"Perceiving their fellow ardat-yakshi as their _sisters_ and the monastery as their _family_ is even being actively encouraged by their supervisors," Syrila pointed out, making Shepard remember her own visit to the Lesuss monastery during the war and the computer logs she found there.

"I think that the loyalty of ardat-yakshi to their families is the reason my people began to treat them the way they do now… they feared the advantage the condition afforded them over the rest of our kind," Syrila said sadly.

"And they were probably right to fear us…" Syrila sighed.

"Either way, they solved nothing," Syrila said resolutely. "The girls in the monasteries are merely innocent victims… while those like me are still able to do what my people probably feared in the first place"

"So you used your condition to help your family as the evolution intended for you?" Shepard asked and Syrila nodded.

"How exactly did you do it if you never melded with anyone?" Shepard asked.

"Another common misconception... the ability to kill during the meld is just a symptom of the ardat-yakshi's sterility… a result of her overcharged biotics," Syrila explained.

"It is however not her true power"

"Samara told me that they can get stronger by melding... increase their own intelligence and biotic powers" Shepard offered.

"Yes, that is true, although not in a sense you understand it"

"Ardat-yakshi does get stronger biotics by melding, but only because melding, in general, increases asari's control over her biotics. A same effect can be achieved with biotic exercises… like the one you saw me doing earlier" Syrila explained.

"The difference is like getting muscles by either exercising or taking steroids... you can get muscles faster by taking steroids, but it is ultimately addictive and self-destructive"

"And while they can take some knowledge from the victims mind, it is just another form of learning... nothing magical."

"So what is the true power of ardat-yakshi if not melding?" Shepard finally asked.

Syrila flashed her a smile.

"The ability to mentally dominate others, of course," she laughed.

"Yes, I know what you mean... I think Morinth tried to do something like this to me, but I resisted her long enough for Samara to come" Shepard smiled proudly and sipped her energy drink.

Syrila cocked her head and smirked.

"My my, human. You barely resisted a scared, tormented little girl... and you think you are something special" Syrila chuckled.

"Would you like to put your resistance to a test?" she suddenly offered while smiling innocently.

"Wh- what do you mean?" Shepard asked carefully.

"I will try to dominate you for a moment... I will order you to touch your nose, stand on one leg... innocent stuff. See if you can really resist me" Syrila said and stood up from the couch.

"I don't know..." Shepard said, suddenly not so confident at her abilities.

"Come on..." Syrila teased her.

"Is the great commander Shepard afraid?"

Shepard stood up and put her energy drink on the table.

"Alright!" she barked. "Bring it on!" she said and prepared herself for Syrila's attack.

"_Is there something I should do?_" she meant to ask Syrila, but to her horror found that she could no longer speak… the attack on her mind already started.

She looked at Syrila and saw her looking at her with confident smirk, focusing her gaze on her.

Shepard started to feel warm and felt her body rooted to the spot. She could not move.

"_Don't resist, Shepard..."_ she heard Syrila say to her but she did not see the asari move her lips at all.

With fear, she realized that the voice was coming from inside her head...

_Surrender... don't resist... you are mine... give it up._

Shepard was lost. Every part of her inner being was screaming at her to obey Syrila… to worship her, to do anything for her.

Syrila continued to whisper in her mind until suddenly, Shepard felt as if some invisible barrier was finally breached inside her mind and something entered her very being, pressing on her from all sides, trapping her consciousness helplessly inside her body.

"_I have you now..._" the confident voice whispered.

"Touch your nose with the fingers of your right hand..." Syrila suddenly said with her real voice.

Shepard wanted to ignore her, but it was as if her body took on a life of its own and she did as Syrila ordered her.

Satisfied by her victory, Syrila slowly walked around the spectre who was touching her own nose.

"I own your mind now, Shepard" Syrila said.

"A pity... I was hoping the savior of the galaxy would be stronger" she said in mixed mocking and genuine concern.

"If I was your enemy, I could destroy you, and you would not lift a finger to save yourself..." she chastised her.

Shepard struggled in vain with the mental bonds that were keeping her trapped inside her mind.

"If I was a crazy rogue ardat-yakshi, I'd meld with you right now..." Syrila told her, stopping in front of her face as she considered something.

She leaned close to her ear and whispered.

"And then I could go and do the same thing to Liara…"

As soon as she mentioned hurting Liara, Shepard roared a loud "NOOOO!" inside her mind and strained against the mental bubble that was holding her prisoner with all her might.

Eventually, she felt Syrila's influence slipping from her mind as she forcibly pushed it away.

Shepard abruptly regained control of her body, but would have collapsed if Syrila did not catch her and guide her to her chair again.

"I have to congratulate you, Shepard" she said in honest voice and handed her the energy drink.

"Congratulate me?... For what?... You've won," Shepard said between gulps.

"Actually, you resisted my strongest mental assault for almost ten seconds …" she said appreciatively.

"So what? I still lost," Shepard protested to her.

"I admit I wanted to teach you a lesson, Shepard" Syrila said. "But when you resisted for so long, I decided to test whether you could also break my control once it was established – something I did not think possible until now."

"And you did it," she smiled at the human spectre.

"You also incidentally proved to me, that I can implicitly trust you with Liara…" she said and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you" the matriarch said as she hugged her tightly.

"How?" Shepard asked confused.

"I tested what would make you fully fight my control…" she explained after she released her from the hug and allowed her to sit down.

"It wasn't when I hurt your ego… It wasn't when I threatened _your_ life… It was only when I threatened Liara," she said and sat back on the couch.

"You should be proud of yourself, Shepard"

"Wow, that must be the first compliment I heard from you" Shepard raised an eyebrow at her.

"You earned it…" she admitted.

"You are part of my family now, Shepard… which means that if anyone screws with you, they will have to deal with me as well."

The both sat in silence for a moment, thinking about what just transpired between them.

"You said that nobody ever resisted you before… how many? Shepard asked, beginning to fully understand Syrila's help to the T'Soni family.

"Hundreds… maybe thousands" Syrila said in serious voice.

"Our enemies… our would-be competitors…" Syrila mused.

"They were no longer a threat to us after I had them literally groveling at my feet," she said smugly.

"Most of them were eager to do anything for me and immediately obeyed my instructions without question…" Syrila mused.

"Only few required more convincing, but ultimately they all submitted to me…" Syrila smiled in triumph.

"In this way, I continued to clear the way for my mother and then later for my older sister…" Syrila narrated to her.

"Sometimes, they would ask me directly… sometimes, I acted on my own… but I was always successful."

Shepard could hardly believe what she was hearing.

"Knowing all this, I wish that we had you during the war," Shepard said wistfully.

"I am ashamed to admit that, I could not do much during the war, Shepard," Syrila said.

"Unfortunately, neither the geth, nor the reapers could be controlled by my powers" Syrila admitted.

"In addition, ever since Benezia joined Saren, my options were limited… especially since she told him about me" Syrila said bitterly, shocking her listener.

"How do you know that?" Shepard asked.

"I quite was certain of it when Saren's krogan mercs came for me on Hyetiana," Syrila said and Shepard's eyes bulged out.

"What?!" Shepard gasped. "Why is that the first time I hear about this?"

"It was a small team and I lived in sparsely populated area…" Syrila shrugged.

"Anyway… either my sister underestimated me, or on some level, she was giving me a chance to escape," Syrila closed her eyes for a second.

"I like to pretend it was the later" she said.

"Either way… The mercs easily fell under my control and I ordered them to climb the nearest mountain and lick the snow there while I made my escape…" Syrila said and Shepard chuckled at the mental image.

"You are certainly creative with your… eh, victims"

Syrila returned the chuckle.

"They are still licking it for all I know…" she smiled.

"After I made my escape, I discovered that Liara was attacked at the same time too but that she was rescued by a newly appointed human spectre… sounds familiar, Shepard?"

Shepard smiled, looking into the ceiling as she remembered the mission on Therum.

"Yeah, I think I might have heard something about that…" she said jokingly.

"Soon after that, I heard that you killed my last sister on Noveria…" Syrila said and Shepard immediately stopped laughing, awkward silence falling between them once again.

"Don't worry… Later, I learned about the indoctrination and I knew that you did the right thing" Syrila said. "Liara told me that she got to speak with Benezia one last time and that she ultimately helped you to defeat Saren…"

"Although, I admit that at the time, I was going to come after you for what you did… that was before you supposedly _died_ and I had to silently watch my last living relative spiraling into depression over your death…"

"I was ready to break my cover and reveal my existence to Liara right there and then, but a new threat forced me to remain in shadows again… threat from the matriarchs themselves"

"Yes, Liara told me about how you used your contacts to make sure that it was her father – Aethyta, who was sent to spy on her."

Syrila looked at her with very dark expression.

"This is not the whole story, Shepard"

Shepard stared at her for a moment before she asked.

"What have you done?"

Syrila hissed. "The _**brilliant**_ idea to have Liara assassinated was considered by many, but I discovered that it was being secretly spearheaded by a single asari matriarch.

"When I removed her from the picture, the rest of the matriarch council immediately abandoned any such thoughts and they were perfectly satisfied to have Aethyta watching over her…"

Shepard listened intently and then asked the single great question on her mind.

"I am almost afraid to ask what you did to that matriarch," she said quietly.

Syrila huffed in anger.

"Can you believe that this blue bitch planned to kill Liara for over a century? After I took her mind, she confessed everything to me."

"It was a relatively good plan too. The bitch figured that since Benezia birthed her daughter so late in life, the leadership of house T'Soni would sooner or later fall on shoulders of a young and inexperienced maiden… she then could get rid of Liara and make a challenge for our family fortunes… the whole situation of Benezia working with Saren was just a convenient excuse for her to have her plans carried out legally"

"That bitch!" Shepard finally exclaimed. "I think I began to see asari as _too perfect_. I would not expect that from your species, Syrila…"

Syrila laughed.

"Don't let our pretty faces fool you, Shepard. My people can be just as ruthless as batarians." Syrila said and continued.

"I have to admit that after she told me this, for the first time in my life, I seriously considered melding… not to feed some addiction, but to feel her die in agony."

"I knew that I could not risk getting myself addicted, but I knew that she had to be punished… so I broke her" Syrila smirked.

"I broke her mind in every way, until she literally could not live without me"

"I ordered her to make series of investments that would gradually, over the course of next few decades, land her fortunes in the hands of loyal cadet branches of the T'Soni family.

"Then I ordered her to make an announcement that she was stepping down from her position and going into solitude for the rest of her life to '_restore her unity with the universe'_…" Syrila made the air quotes gesture.

"A lot of crazy old matriarchs do that, so it wasn't all that suspicious to her family"

"You completely ruined her…" Shepard mused. "Can't say that I am sorry for her…"

"Oh, that's not all, Shepard" Syrila laughed.

"She did not go onto any great soul-searching journey… she went to a plastic surgeon who altered her appearance so that she would not be recognized by anyone."

"These days, you can find her on Omega as one of the streetwalkers… I heard that the '_matriarch whore_' is very popular there."

"She will remain like this for the rest of her life and she knows it," Syrila finished with smirk.

"You are not kidding, are you?" Shepard asked, hardly believing that Liara's aunt would be capable of something like this, even after all that she just heard from her.

"That might have been the most insidious thing that I've ever done to anyone, but she broke the first rule of the universe…"

"**Don't fuck with T'Soni family." **

Shepard shook her head with a smile before she stood up.

"I am glad that you came into our lives Syrila… even if you honestly terrify me sometimes."

"And I thank you for accepting me, Shepard. And for talking to me about my life… it was interesting to be able to finally talk about it to someone."

"It was my pleasure" Shepard said, offering a handshake to the ardat-yakshi matriarch before pulling her in for a hug.

"You should tell all of this to Liara" she suggested.

Syrila looked unsure.

"I don't want her to think lesser of me or our family because of what I did…" she whispered.

"Nonsense," Shepard said.

"You did bad things for the greater good… I can assure you that Liara will understand that better than anyone."

"Thank you, Shepard… I'll consider it."


	5. Chapter 5

Syrila found her niece in the large atrium located at the center of the house.

She was going to leave soon and wanted to speak with Liara again before she did.

The maiden was currently sitting on a bench while sipping her tea. She was looking up, through the glass ceiling, on the clouds running around the sky.

She looked down and smiled when she saw Syrila coming to her.

Syrila sat down on the bench next to her and looked around with a deep sigh.

"What is it?" Liara asked her, seeing as her aunt looked around nervously.

Syrila looked at her. "It's nothing," she said and saw Liara raise one of her tattooed eyebrows at her.

"It's just that it has been a thousand years since I was here the last time," she said.

"Also, as children, Atala and I would often play here…" Syrila mused and smiled.

"Oh, the scolding mother gave us when we trampled her flowerbeds"

Liara smiled back.

"Fortunately, it never occurred to me to dig for the ruins in here," Liara said.

"I suspect that Benezia would have been less then amused."

Syrila laughed.

"Yes, your mother told me about your early archeological activities… I though that it was very cute," she said, nudging Liara playfully with her elbow.

"Although actually, you might have had a better luck here than outside…" Syrila said. "Legend says that our family's original wooden house stood in place of this atrium."

"Do you really believe that?" Liara asked, having heard the legend before from her own mother.

The atrium was large, but still, she had trouble to reconcile the image of a small and modest house that would fit in here with the reality of the vast fortress that her ancestors built over the millenniums.

Syrila chuckled.

"Even we T'Sonis had to start off somewhere…" Syrila mused. "And I bet it was in the dirt like everyone else," she said.

"I guess you are right," Liara admitted.

She finished her tea and stood up.

"Walk with me?" she said to Syrila and the matriarch followed her close by.

They walked through the atrium in silence for a moment before Syrila spoke.

"Liara, about the things I told you last night…" she began to say apologetically.

Last night, Syrila finally told her niece everything about her more morally questionable activities she committed over the years in order to help and protect T'Soni family.

"Please… don't," Liara said resolutely. "I said I don't blame you at all and I meant it" she said.

"If anything, I respect you even more… you selflessly did all these things for our family, without really getting anything in return."

"I am happy that I had my guardian angel in you over the years… the guardian angel named **Syrila T'Soni" **Liara emphasized her name.

"I don't care what anyone else thinks, you are part of my family and you should be able to use your name freely," Liara said with conviction.

Syrila smiled sadly.

"I admit that it might have bothered me in the past, but it hasn't for a very long time," Syrila said, referring to her secret life.

"It's more than enough to know that **you** accept me into your life," she said.

"I don't need my name to show up on some records to feel like part of the family."

"Nevertheless, Syrila, I promise you that I will do whatever I can to help you and the other ardat-yakshi" Liara said resolutely. "You don't deserve to be treated like this… I will find a cure."

"Thank you," Syrila whispered after few moments.

They stopped at a water spring that sustained a small pond inside the atrium. There was another bench near it and they sat on it.

"And what about the things I told you?" Liara asked her. "Are you fine with those?"

In return for her aunt's honesty, Liara told her everything she herself did during the war, including her secret identity as the shadow broker.

"What can I say?" Syrila chuckled.

"When I came here, I knew that you were an amazing and intelligent person," she complimented her niece.

"But I also figured that you were very young and could maybe benefit from my guidance."

Syrila looked at her.

"Little did I realize that you have already surpassed us all in ways that I could not even imagine," she said.

"Please…" Liara said as she blushed. "I didn't do any of it alone," she protested.

"That makes you even more impressive," Syrila insisted.

"I always knew you would be special in life... But goddess!" she exclaimed and Liara looked at her quizzically.

"Liara, you are barely over hundred years old!" Syrila said.

"At your age, most of the asari girls are at best still trying to figure their life out… or at worst shaking their bare asses into someone's face" Syrila laughed.

"But you… in that time you've got a doctorate, published dozens of articles in your field and got tenured at the best university on Thessia," Syrila said proudly.

"Oh, and to top it all off, you've won a galactic war… ok, **helped **to win a galactic war against billions of years old, impossibly powerful enemies," Syrila quickly corrected herself when she saw Liara was about to protest again.

"And also, you became the bloody Shadow Broker!" Syrila ended her enumeration.

They sat in silence for a while as they took off their shoes and cooled their feet in the pond.

"I've been busy, haven't I?" Liara eventually asked, the modesty in her voice finally partially replaced by smugness.

"I'll say…"

"And I haven't even mentioned how you snatched the greatest hero of the galaxy as your bondmate!" Syrila exclaimed, making Liara blush again.

"Syrila!" she whined. "You are starting to sound like my father," she complained.

"All I am saying is that politically speaking, you _getting_ Shepard is a great victory for the asari… I am quiet now" she chuckled and stopped talking when she saw Liara's stern expression.

"But seriously, I am more than impressed with your choice in partners… and I am positive that Benezia would have been as well" she said.

"Thanks… I guess" Liara said, thinking about Benezia's potential reaction to Shepard.

"That's saying something, Liara" Syrila insisted. "Benezia was terrified of your future dating life"

"She was?" Liara asked surprised.

"Completely so," Syrila confirmed.

"And she was right to be… you were her only child and her sole inheritor. If you actually stayed on Thessia after school, you would have been getting suitors at every step."

"And while she tried to raise you to appreciate modesty, in this house, you still necessarily grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth. Benezia was worried that you might end up as some stereotypically spoiled rich slut," Syrila chuckled.

"I had now idea that my personal life weighed so heavily on my mother's mind," Liara admitted.

"Well, she had a bad personal experience," Syrila shrugged. "Our sister – Atala – had a spoiled slutty phase in her life for a few decades. Mother had to send her to a boarding school where her behavior finally improved."

"But every mother worries like this, Liara. Trust me. You will too one day," Syrila looked at her meaningfully.

"When you rejected all evil temptations of our family's wealth and instead pursued a career in academia, she was very much relieved," Syrila said.

"She was? I remember her actually criticizing my choice," Liara said.

"But she still supported you anyway, didn't she?" Syrila smiled.

"Well, yes" Liara admitted.

"She suspected that your choice was partly a rebellion against her person and our family… so she had to voice her displeasure in order to maintain your motivations," Syrila explained.

"But truth be told, she actually very much approved," Syrila smiled.

"Be certain that you would have known it **very fast **if she didn't," Syrila laughed.

Syrila stood up and went close to the water spring. She formed a cup with her hands and let the water pour in before she took a sip to refresh herself.

"So... shadow broker," she began to say with a smile. "You really had no idea that I existed?"

Liara looked from the bench and turned her head.

"No idea. The previous broker suspected that there was someone operating in Benezia's shadow but he assumed it was just some hired agent or agents."

"When I took over, I had no reason to think differently… and of course, by that time, it was no longer relevant," Liara admitted with slightly sad look.

"Then I guess I was very good in my hiding," Syrila smiled after giving her niece a sympathetic look.

"Over the last century, half my time was spent on dodging shadow broker's operatives…" Syrila admitted.

"I will have a lot of free time now that the shadow broker already knows about me," she smiled at her niece.

Liara stood up and joined her aunt near the spring at the edge of the pond.

"Do you really have to leave?" she asked her aunt after a while.

"Yes, Liara. I am sorry. Believe it or not, there are still important things for me to do out in the galaxy," Syrila said sadly.

"But I promise you that I will try to communicate whenever I can."

Liara sighed and moved to activate her omni-tool.

"Then to that end, I have a small present for you," she said, disconnecting a single small computer chip from her omni-tool.

"What is it?" Syrila asked as she carefully took the object from Liara.

"It contains the second from the pair of two entangled particles…" Liara explained. "The first one is already installed in my omni-tool."

"Just insert it in yours and we will be able to communicate whenever we want, in completely secure and untraceable way."

Syrila gasped. "Personal quantum-entanglement communicator?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Liara, that must have cost you a fortune!" Syrila said. "Thank you!"

"You are welcome, Syrila" she said to her aunt. "I don't want to lose you from my life again."

"You won't," Syrila promised her.

"Besides," she smiled at Liara. "I suspect that I will be back very soon."

Seeing Liara's confused look, she pointed at the spring.

"You should drink the water from this spring. It is very rich in eezo and **very** beneficial to someone in your state," Syrila said and covered Liara's belly with her hand.

Liara gasped in shock at her gesture.

"How can you possibly know? Even I do not know for certain yet!" she said.

"Please… the morning breakfast after Shepard returned from her spectre mission," Syrila explained.

"I know the _**'We just had a reproductive melding and it was absolutely breathtaking'**_ look when I see one. You two were practically glowing," Syrila said, making Liara blush deeply.

* * *

**A/N: I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed this story. You guys were amazing and you offered me many useful suggestions. Thank you! While the main part of the story is over, there will still be a full epilogue chapter about Liara fulfilling her promise to Syrila that she made in this one. Stay tuned! :-)**


	6. Epilogue

**Epilogue:**

Syrila T'Soni remained true to her word and regularly visited Shepard and Liara over the years. After little Benezia was born, Syrila would often stay with them for weeks and babysit the child, just as she did with Liara many years ago.

Later on, Syrila offered to take over most of Liara's shadow broker responsibilities for the time being, so the young maiden would be free to enjoy the time with her family and raise her daughter.

Having spent most of her adult life in constant secrecy, being the shadow broker was very much a second nature to Syrila. She went on to do many good things for the benefit of the galaxy and Liara was happy to have found someone trustworthy for the job.

* * *

As for Liara herself, she did not forget her promise to Syrila.

One of the many good things that history would remember Dr. Liara T'Soni for, was that she finally liberated the asari ardat-yakshi from their condition and the social curse that came with it.

It wasn't however an easy task.

* * *

About two years after having met Syrila, Liara compiled and published her aunt's research on the ardat-yakshi condition. Certain details were necessarily omitted so Syrila or the T'Soni family would not be implicated, but the basic truth was out there.

The publication sent large ripples through normally calm and conservative asari society. While many scholars and government officials tried to refute and trivialize Liara's research, the outrage among the ordinary asari and their alien partners was very strong.

The asari government had no choice but to commit itself towards finding the cure. Many scientific teams were tasked to work on the problem.

After keeping the true extend of the condition a secret for centuries, the asari also finally shared the truth with the alien races. Many asari feared the reaction, but to their surprise, universities and research centers throughout the citadel space extended an offer of assistance in curing the AY condition and many alien scientists joined the task force teams.

Incidentally, it turned out that many of the most brilliant and powerful people in the galaxy were already in a relationship with the asari, having asari bondmates and children… they were therefore personally motivated to help the asari species any way they could.

Liara coordinated their research, both secretly in her capacity as the shadow broker, and publically, on behalf of the T'Soni family, being a major investor.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts, the studies kept producing no viable results.

After three years of fruitless research and millions of credits spent, many were already giving up and the governments were slowly pulling the plug on the funding as the public's opinion shifted away from the ardat-yakshi's problem.

The failure to find the cure was weighing heavily on Liara's mind.

* * *

"Damn it!" Liara cursed as she threw away the datapad containing the latest negative report from the science teams. By this point only three teams were still working on the problem and even they were starting to lose faith.

Liara was beginning to wonder whether she would be able to keep her promise to Syrila after all.

"Knock-knock," Shepard announced her presence as she entered Liara's shadow broker lair.

"Shepard," she said the name of her bondmate weakly and slumped into her chair, feeling utterly depressed and exhausted from the entire fiasco to find the cure.

"Bad news?" Shepard asked, but didn't wait for the answer when she saw Liara's defeated expression.

Liara felt Shepard's fingers massaging her shoulders before moving on to her crest and despite her dreadful mood, she sighed happily.

She looked at her bondmate.

Shepard always managed to lift her spirits up, no matter the situation. Be it with words, gestures or actions, _Jane Shepard_ always seemed to know exactly what _Liara T'Soni_ needed at the moment.

"I am so tired, Shepard," she eventually admitted and Shepard pulled her out of her chair and into a hug.

"It will be alright, Liara…" she soothed her.

"You are the most brilliant person I've ever met… if it can be done, you will do it," Shepard said resolutely.

"But what if it actually _**really**_ can't be done, Shepard?" Liara wailed. "All those asari who are imprisoned only because of how they were born… like Napia's daughter."

Shepard sighed, remembering the person Liara spoke about.

_Napia T'Lysi was an accountant from the Armali city. She lost her batarian husband in the reaper war, but she and her young daughter managed to survive._

_They were happily living together until the time when her daughter – Pel T'Lysi was arrested after routine medical check-up._

_Napia protested, even firing her biotics on the officers, but the doctors managed to sedate her._

_When she woke up, they told her that a justicar have taken her daughter away to an ardat-yakshi monastery… because apparently that's what her daughter was._

_She has never properly heard about the condition before, but they've told her that it was developing in her daughter and that she was never going to see her again._

_She collapsed afterwards. After the last person she cared about in the world was taken away from her, Napia has lost all reason to live and was about to take her own life when she saw the news of Liara's publication._

_After hearing this, the poor woman visited the T'Soni estate and told Liara all about her daughter._

_She admitted that melding was more and more difficult with Pel as she grew up, but she insisted that her daughter never hurt anyone, that she was a good girl._

_She then begged Liara to help her get her baby back to her._

_Liara made a solemn promise that day that she would bring Pel back to her, one way or the other._

Shepard's musing was interrupted when she heard Liara whimper in her arms.

"Hey, none of that…" she tried to cheer her up.

"Oh, Jane… the ardat-yakshi condition has been with my people from dawn of time… are the asari really doomed to bear it until our final hour?" she asked the question even though she knew that her bondmate would not be able to answer it.

That however would not stop Shepard from trying.

"Maybe that's exactly it Liara…" Shepard tried to calm her.

"Maybe you can't expect to have something like this solved after few years… it might take decades or centuries," Shepard said and Liara gave her a sad look.

"Hey, are you saying that you are going to give it up… even if it takes that long?" Shepard said in faked shock as she cupped Liara's cheek in her hand.

"Of course not! I will keep pushing for this till my last breath if I have to…" Liara said resolutely.

Shepard gave her a warm smile.

"And that's just one of the many reasons why I love you so much, T'Soni" she said and kissed Liara deeply until all bad thoughts left the asari's mind and she smiled as well.

"Come…" Shepard urged her. "You can take a break for a while."

"Ok…" Liara said and shut down her terminals.

"I suppose a fresh perspective might do me good," she admitted as they walked out of the room while holding hands with Shepard.

"If you want something creative to take your mind of things… then how about we talk about the decorations?" Shepard said cheerfully.

"Or have you forgotten that we have a party to plan?"

Liara shook her head. She hasn't forgotten. All their old friends from the Normandy, and even the new friends they've made since settling on Thessia, would be arriving for a great party in the T'Soni mansion in the next two weeks.

"Aria and Tevos would be joining us as well," Shepard said and Liara smiled. The citadel councilor and the omega queen formed an odd pair, but Shepard and Liara have become close friends with them following the war.

"Oh, and yesterday, I got a call from Javik that he would be coming too…" she continued.

Liara's smile disappeared a little. She never really liked that prothean even though they grudgingly came to a mutual respect for each other during the war.

"Wrex and Grunt will be coming too… I think that I am going to barricade the gym for the duration," Shepard laughed.

Liara momentarily laughed as well but then she froze in her steps.

"What is wrong?" Shepard asked concerned when Liara stopped and trembled in her spot.

Liara didn't hear her. Several things Shepard said to her in the last few minutes were suddenly coming together in her head into one of the greatest ideas of her life…

"Goddess…" she finally gasped.

"How could I've been so stupid!" she said. "It is so obvious!"

"Shepard we have to go to the Armali right now!" she said in excitement.

Before Shepard could ask any questions, her bondmate was already running away and so she ran after her.

Liara went to the living room where Aethyta was sitting with little Benezia on her lap. The matriarch was playing with her granddaughter and trying to teach her how to make head-butts. They were both laughing crazy at Benny's playful attempts.

Liara quickly explained to her father that they had to leave. Afterwards, both she and Shepard kissed their daughter's crest, the laughing child blissfully unaware of the seriousness of the commotion around her.

After they changed their clothes, Liara literally jumped into the skycar, followed by her bondmate.

Their skycar rose from the T'Soni estate, closely shadowed by a second skycar and a truck filled with a unit of T'Soni household guards – a perk of Liara's status.

Liara quickly set in the course for the Armali city and engaged the auto-pilot.

"Maybe now you can tell me what is going on? Why we need to go to the Armali so **badly**?" Shepard eventually asked after her bondmate finally sat idly for a moment.

Ever since Liara had some sort of major epiphany during their talk about the party guests, she refused to explain anything.

"_No time!"_ she would say as she hurried through the house to leave, but now she would finally induct Shepard into her reasoning.

"Javik!" she said in a victorious tone, as if that was supposed to explain all the haste.

"What about him? Shepard asked confused.

"Shepard, you said it yourself…"

"It might take us centuries to discover a cure for the ardat-yakshi…" Liara said quickly while Shepard listened intently.

"But we know for a fact that there is one species that studied my people's genome for at least that long," Liara said happily.

"The protheans!" they said in unison.

"Exactly… they did extensive genetic engineering on my people," Liara said and scowled.

"As much I do not like them for that fact, it brings us hope now… they might have very well discovered something about the ardat-yakshi condition," Liara explained.

Shepard nodded in understanding. She remembered some of the things Javik told her during and after their visit to the ardat-yakshi monastery on Lesuss and she was getting excited as much as her bondmate.

"So that means we are going to the…" Shepard began to say, but did not have to finish her sentence because the imposing structure of the Athame temple was quickly growing in the distance.

While the main building was heavily damaged during the war, the prothean archives located mainly underground were largely spared. Apparently, the reapers did not care or did not realize their significance. Most likely, a destroyer would eventually be sent to blast them apart, but fortunately, due to their ultimate victory, this never happened.

Their vehicles touched the ground and Shepard and Liara, along with their armed company, jumped out.

The asari commandos formed close, but respectful perimeter around the two of them as they approached the entrance to the temple.

Shepard noted that the damage to the building was already repaired and the temple looked just as she remembered it during the war… minus the reaper harvesters.

"Doctor T'Soni…" an asari priestess greeted them, immediately recognizing Liara.

The asari were still pretending that the structure was nothing more than a religious temple. The priestess was seemingly alone, but Shepard knew there had to be hidden asari commando units all around them.

"I am afraid that the temple is closed," she said and pointed at the security door.

"I do not see you on the guest list – oh," she began to say when suddenly her omni-tool beeped.

"My apologizes… you have been granted full access" she said as she read the message.

The door sealing the temple began to open, allowing them in.

When they got further inside and out from the priestess' earshot, Shepard leaned closer to Liara.

"Do I want to ask how you got us access so quickly?" she whispered.

"Sent a message to Tevos before we landed," Liara explained with a smirk.

"Come, my love, we have work to do," Liara said and together, they descended inside the prothean archives.

* * *

Shepard kept extracting and sending databanks to Liara while the asari quickly read their content, knowing what to look for.

Due to her countless melds with Shepard, she now possessed the same prothean cipher as the human spectre. Reading the prothean language was therefore no trouble for her.

It took Liara almost three hours, but she eventually found what she was looking for. Her instincts were correct. The protheans did study the ardat-yakshi condition.

According to the logs, the protheans examined the condition after learning about the associated superstitions from the primitive asari.

Not intimidated by the stories, they eventually correctly identified it as a genetic mutation.

A various actions were proposed, but eventually it was decided that the condition was too rare to possibly warrant a cure research.

Instead, they recommended to Liara's ancestors to kill or isolate the asari afflicted with the condition, hoping that it would eventually disappear on its own.

To that purpose, a special privileged caste of biotic warriors was created and sworn to hunt the ardat-yakshi.

Liara laughed bitterly for finally having learned where the asari's hatred of the ardat-yakshi was started.

And also, how the justicar's order came to be. The official legend said that justicar's were gathered and commanded by the goddess Athame herself to enforce her codex and hunt the ardat-yakshi everywhere…

Liara now realized that the legend was most likely true, sans the goddess part. She shook her head sadly.

Just as Shepard, she considered both of these events the greatest mistakes of her species. It was therefore good to know that it wasn't originally their idea after all…

Nevertheless, Liara despaired a little after reading this as there was no mention of the cure.

She almost overlooked a note at the end of the log.

When she clicked on it, she learned that one of the prothean scientists disagreed and dedicated his life to finding a viable cure.

In his private logs, he cited _"Personal motivations"_ for the project.

As she kept reading, her hopes went higher and higher, until they literally went through the roof as she found a finished treatment plan at the end of the log.

Unfortunately, it was never massively implemented as the scientist finished it just before the prothean withdrawal from Thessia. He actually recorded his displeasure at the horribly ironic situation very vocally in his log.

Liara almost froze as she read the last paragraph, where the dead prothean addressed _**her**_ directly.

"_If any organic is reading this, then you are probably an asari and you finally learned how to read. If by any luck you also have the knowledge to use my research, please do so. The cure is ready, but I have run out of time. Please use it… in memory of my daughter."_

Liara did not have much time to consider the implications of the last sentence. Mainly because she was currently switching between hugging Shepard and jumping with joy.

* * *

While the prothean cure was scientifically sound, it took the teams almost three months to adjust for the 50 000 years of genetic drift and adapt it to present day asari.

Nevertheless, it was finished as it ever could be. They tested it on cloned ardat-yakshi tissues and even on Majals – the genetically closest, non-sapient relative of the asari. The only remaining procedure was the application on a living ardat-yakshi.

To that end, Liara contacted the person that visited her three years ago, when she published the information about the ardat-yakshi.

* * *

The small frigate belonging to Shepard and Liara landed near the ardat-yakshi monastery on the ice planet Trategos and they all came out – Liara and Shepard, Napia T'Lysi, and at least twenty commandos.

A single asari was standing in front of the snow-capped monastery to greet them.

"Spectre Shepard, Dr. T'Soni, welcome to our monastery. I am its headmistress, my name is matriarch -" she said to them in greeting and was about to introduce herself before she was interrupted.

"Where is Pel?" Napia immediately asked when she did not see her daughter anywhere.

"Inside the monastery, where she belongs…" the matriarch said harshly to her.

Before Napia could scream at the woman, Shepard intervened.

"Matriarch, have you received your orders?" she asked, her tone equally harsh.

"Yes, we did receive a message from the asari government, ordering us to hand over an ardat-yakshi – Pel T'Lysi – into your custody for a medical experiment," she recited in disgust.

"Then where is she?" Liara asked this time, also very forcefully.

The matriarch scowled. "While we are technically under auspice of the government, the ardat-yakshi monasteries are independent."

"I do not know how you convinced the asari councilor into signing this, but we are not going listen to that order… the ardat-yakshi condition is a curse from the goddess. It can't be cured, you ignorant human," the matriarch smiled smugly while Shepard facepalmed.

"So unless your commandos are ready to storm our gates, Pel T'Lysi will stay where she is," she said, completely ignoring Napia's cry of anguish.

"It might just come to that," Shepard said and gestured with her hand

Suddenly, assault rifles were raised and biotics primed behind their backs. The commandos dropping into battle stance.

The matriarch stepped back in shock, almost falling over as Shepard gazed at her without any emotions showing on her face.

"You wouldn't dare…" she hissed.

Shepard laughed. "Oh, I most certainly would, but I don't think it will be necessary," Shepard said and moved aside as a previously unseen figure stepped out of the commando group.

"Justicar?" the matriarch asked disbelievingly.

"My name is Samara," the asari in red armor said.

"And unless you want **me** to join in the attack against your monastery, you will release Pel T'Lysi at once."

* * *

After seeing a justicar, the matriarch's resolve quickly caved in and she brought Napia's daughter to them.

Shepard and Liara both cried as they witnessed the matron's heart-rending reunion with her child.

Both mother and daughter believed they were never going to see each other again and now got a new chance.

Napia thanked Liara fervently for keeping her promise.

After explaining everything to Pel, they brought the girl into the ship's medical bay where the rest of Liara's selected science team was waiting.

Over the next five days, they applied the adapted prothean cure into Pel's body.

The key element of the prothean's success, and the reason for their failure to come up with the cure of their own, was simple – the condition had to be attacked simultaneously on several sides and with many elements, including several tissue-specific retroviruses and nanoparticles.

They carefully monitored Pel's health as they progressed. Eventually, the machines indicated no signs of the harmful aspect of the ardat-yakshi mutation inside her body. The effect was exactly as the prothean researcher predicted and Pel was feeling well.

The final trial was necessary.

Pel was really scared of hurting her mother, but Napia eventually coaxed her daughter into it and they melded. Liara and the others were ready to intervene if Napia's life signs became erratic, but nothing like this happened and they both peacefully exited from the meld with smile on their lips.

* * *

Later, in the mess hall, there was a small toast to their amazing success, with Liara and Shepard receiving congratulations and thanks from all the present.

Eventually, Shepard and Liara found their way to Samara who was standing in the corner, uncertain whether she should join the festivities or not.

"Samara, thank you for coming. You were a big help," Shepard said and Liara nodded.

"It was my pleasure, friend," Samara said.

"But to be honest, it is me who should be thanking you," Samara said and turned to address Liara as well.

"You gave my last daughter, Falere, a chance to live a free life… have children… it is something that I can never repay you" she said.

She then sighed and looked sad.

"Shepard, what you told me, about Justicars, about the ardat-yakshi…" she said and closed her eyes, suppressing tears.

"I think that I always felt it in my heart… but actually knowing that it was my fault what became of Mirala is going to haunt me for the rest of my life…" she said and took of her justicar headdress from her face.

She then proceeded to crush it in her hand until she drew blood.

When she finally opened her eyes, tears were streaming down her face.

"I won't be a justicar any longer," she said resolutely as she threw the bloodied crumpled piece to the ground.

* * *

Later that night, Liara entered the ship's cockpit. An asari maiden, one of Liara's commandos, was sitting in a pilot chair. She politely acknowledged her principal when Liara walked in and closed the door.

Liara then pushed a button on her omni-tool, sealing the room and activating the signal jamming device.

"We are alone," she said.

The maiden got of her chair and rushed to hug Liara who returned the gesture in earnest.

"I am so proud of you, Liara" Syrila said in her perfect disguise.

"You are truly your mother's daughter… all those asari…" Syrila pointed at the monastery outside.

"You gave them back the lives our people took away from them for so long."

"Your bondmate might be the hero of the galaxy, but you just ensured that asari will praise **your** name until the end of time."

* * *

They observed Pel for several more months for any kind of negative effects resulting from the cure.

Only when they were certain that everything was in order did they release the cure for public use.

There was some resistance from conservative elements of the asari society, but after Pel's and Napia's touching story went on the galactic news, the pressure from the public was enormous.

Despite the cure not being mandatory, all ardat-yakshi living in the monasteries opted to use it. Thus, the monasteries were rendered useless and closed down.

Eventually, under pressure from Liara and her allies, the matriarch assembly passed laws that prohibited the practice of imprisoning the ardat-yakshi.

Most significantly, Liara made sure that the previous laws were reversed **retroactively**. In essence, the past treatment of the ardat-yakshi was declared to have been cruel, unlawful, and unjust.

Not only did this give the surviving ardat-yakshi a sense of vindication, it also forced the asari government to pay them large compensations for unlawful imprisonment. In many cases, said unlawful imprisonment lasted for centuries and the ardat-yakshi in question would receive hundreds of millions of credits.

Compensations were also paid to the families of those like Pel T'Lysi who clearly suffered a great emotional anguish as a result of the illegal detainment of their loved ones.

As for the Justicar order, it gradually fell apart after prothean's role in their creation was proven beyond question, including a personal testimony from Javik.

Learning that their order was founded on a prothean cruelty and their callous attitude, the honest Justicars renounced their titles in disgust. Most of them eventually went on to join the regular armed forces and few of them even became spectres.

There were however also corrupt and inherently evil justicars who refused to abandon the position which gave them so much power over the past centuries. Their stance was seen as incredibly moral by some and earned them a sympathy from a portion of the asari society.

In response, Liara was forced to release all information that the shadow broker possessed, pertaining to their illegal activities.

Seeing the horror of their crimes, all seemingly committed in the name of justice, the public swiftly turned against them. Everybody saw them for the criminals they were and eventually, they were all hunted down by the law enforcement agencies and even other former justicars.

Among those justicar rogues stood out justicar Phora who was known to be especially brutal with the ardat-yakshi, not caring whether they were centuries old killers or young innocent children about to be taken from their parents.

Seeing that her days of tormenting the galaxy were over, Phora decided to turn against the person she saw as the cause of her current situation.

Under cover of the night, she tried sneaking into the T'Soni estate in order to kill Liara T'Soni – the person she now hated even more than the ardat-yakshi.

Fortunately, Shepard and Liara were expecting something like this for a while and the security measures were heightened. Phora was spotted and captured before she could get anywhere near the main house, but not before killing two of the T'Soni household guards.

Shepard wanted to execute her in her right as a council spectre, but Liara asked her not to.

Instead, Phora was cuffed and brought into an improvised cell in the commandos' barracks.

The next day, the furious Syrila T'Soni unexpectedly arrived and immediately went to _talk_ with the captured justicar.

Against Syrila's recommendation, Shepard insisted on watching the interrogation.

Phora's crimes were numerous and after she tried to kill her niece, Syrila showed no mercy on her.

Shepard watched as the proud but also hateful justicar was reduced into a drooling wreck, totally under Syrila's mind controlling domination.

The justicar loved her power above all else and when it was taken from her, she had nothing else. Her mind had no way to resist, nothing to anchor herself to.

Syrila made her recount and confess to all of her crimes, implicating several previously unknown people. All of them were later arrested.

In the end, Phora has shown no remorse. As a final punishment for her crimes, Syrila broke and permanently imprisoned Phora's mind. She then programmed the justicar with a new personality and sent her away.

No one has seen her again after that.

Shepard thought that Phora's end was more fitting for her than a simple execution. To lose everything and be destroyed by a _lowly_ ardat-yakshi… one of the creatures that she mercilessly hunted her whole life.

Decades later, there would be some whispers about a filthy, beaten asari begging on the streets of Omega, wearing a tattered remains of a justicar uniform… but no one really paid attention to such ridiculous gossip.

* * *

In the following months after the cure was released, it became obvious just how much Liara was right in helping the ardat-yakshi.

Curious thing began to happen.

There were dozens of ordinary asari citizens coming to the medical facilities all over asari space. They would confess to being ardat-yakshi who managed to avoid imprisonment and then would request the cure.

They no longer had to hide. The ardat-yakshi were cured and freed from the monasteries and the asari society finally saw them as victims and not demons.

When it was clear that there truly would be no legal actions against the ardat-yakshi who came forward like this, the number of asari coming to the clinics grew to hundreds and then to thousands.

It turned out that ten times as much ardat-yakshi were freely living among the asari than were actually imprisoned.

All these years, these women kept their condition a secret by not melding with anyone.

The asari people were utterly shocked to learn just how many of their friends and neighbors whom they've known and loved for years were afflicted with the condition. They were shocked even more when a much respected matriarch from the assembly revealed herself to be also suffering from the condition.

In the end, it only served to utterly destroy the scary and mystical image of the "_demon of the night winds_" and proved that the past policy was not only abhorrent and wrong, but also completely pointless.

* * *

Although Liara tried to downplay her involvement in finding the cure, she became a personal hero for tens of thousands of the former ardat-yakshi all over the galaxy. In gratitude, some of them even pledged themselves to her, becoming Liara's acolytes.

The dark chapter of the asari history that lasted for nearly 50 000 years was finally over.

**The end.**


End file.
